May 11, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“To the woman God said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”

(Genesis 3.16)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I realize this is dangerous territory when I say this, but the decision made by Eve to continue to listen to the petition and logic of the Serpent (Satan incognito) was an act of disobedience against God. In today’s world, such disobedience shows one aspect of the lack of respect for women for themselves, for men and for God. Now before hitting the “are you kidding me” delete button, hear me out on this. In the story of Creation, there is a natural order of things presented without equivocation. What is revealed is the failure to act in love toward God. And do not misunderstand me, I am not focusing JUST on Eve. I am only speaking to the Eve element in the story of Creation. I am also not doing the broken human logic argument which became a part of the “after Creation” story that blames Eve for the total problem as it relates to sin in the world. The true agent of evil is Satan (aka the Serpent). That reality is inescapable. When Moses was being given this revelation of God’s decision to choose Adam and Eve to be the stewards and shepherds of creation physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, it was without the background knowledge of where there was evil in the world. For Moses, as he became the translator of the “history of the people of God” in the world, evil existed. Further, let us remember that Moses did not receive “The Book of the Law,” which now is called Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), until after the giving of the Ten Commandments (which I call The Rule of Righteousness) at Mount Sinai. It is clear in the reading of these ancient texts that the cycle of life had to be defined and understood if those who would be “the people of God” would indeed be able to move forward and receive that which had been promised to them through the Abrahamic Covenant. A significant part of that understanding had to be the relationship of humanity to both God and Satan. We could make this even more distinct for the human perspective by defining this relationship with the terms of righteousness, as that which relates to God and thus be holy, and unrighteousness, as that which relates to Satan and profane. The profanation of God’s Word was the tool of Satan to get Adam and Eve to decommit to God and to commit to themselves. Satan, aka the Serpent, did not ask them to commit to follow him. He did not make any promises to provide for them, protect them or give them authority. We hear these “promises” offered to Jesus in the wilderness following His baptism. His baptism was the anointing of Jesus to be rabbi/teacher, prophet, priest and king. In that event, Jesus is deliberately challenged to deny the decision He made to be righteous before God and fulfill His purpose in the world. That purpose was to be the agent of righteousness and reconcile all of God’s people with God. He would do this by challenging and empowering the status quo to return to their point of origin with God. That point of origin was to fulfill all the commandments which God had originally made with those who would be “the people of God.” Those commandments fell in two categories as that which relates to people to God and those which relate to people to people. For Adam and Eve in the Garden, no such identity was even considered. Adam and Eve had no sense of being called to be people of God in a world of others. Their entire view of the world was the Garden itself. It was a place where they and God were in it together. It would be Satan, aka the Serpent, who would introduce “the world” to Adam and Eve. His question begged Adam and Eve to consider a worldview of existence apart from God by claiming they were unequal to God. Not only that but Satan introduced the concept that God was intentional and egocentric. God did not want humanity to “be like Him/Them.” Instead, God wanted them to not live into their fullest potential which was “the image in which they had been originally created.” Just as we do not know what the world would be like today if Eve had said no and deferred to her husband or if Adam had intervened and rebuked the Serpent and thus protect the then “Word of God” which truly defined them as “the people of God,” so we do not know how Adam and Eve would have matured into such a wise and knowledgable relationship with God as it pertained to knowing right from wrong, good from evil. Would it have simply become a natural process of revelation? Or would they have come to recognize that they were truly different from God as Adam discovered he was unlike all other creatures in the Garden and stood alone as a human (a term he had no knowledge of, of course.)

What we are presented in the Story of Creation, which now because of Genesis 2 includes the “Fall of Humanity” from a truly righteous position in the world and just a little less than the angels in the Kingdom, is that moment of decision. That decision is necessary for each and every human being. That decision is two-fold: what shall we believe about ourselves and what shall we believe about God. As God is love in true form and function, then we are deciding what we believe about love and who we shall love in priority order. Satan loved, loves and will always love (fatally so) himself. He hates, loathes and defies God (fatally so) and misery loves company. Hear then, in the story concerning Eve and this necessary decision, the consequence of deciding for one’s self for self’s sake over and against deciding for God for self’s sake. The question has always been “will I trust in God or won’t I?” Genesis, chapter 2, gives us the defined insight as to the process of life for all humankind as it relates to God. Why it differs from what is presented in Genesis, chapter 1, remains a mystery. Or maybe it is that the mystery is revealed with the clarity presented in chapter 2. The equality of male and female is not 50/50 but 100/100 to equal 100 (half not whole but whole as half of the whole.) In truth, this is the reality of being equally yoked which is a concept Jesus introduces in His gospel rendering of right relationship between God and humanity and humanity with itself. That Eve is then told “you will listen to your husband” is not a demeaning statement but one of restoring a balanced and equally yoked relationship. In all matters, to answer wholly to herself would be to undefine what God had created as right, good and holy. The same will be true for Adam but with a different consequence while still addressing the same problem. As Eve did not defer to Adam, neither did Adam defer to God. Adam and Eve choose to live life different than what God had intended. Even though they did not know there was another way until Satan intervened, the choice was always the same: Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul and seek to live in righteousness. What Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6.33) was that stated reality of Adam and Eve in the Garden and that was “…and all that is needed will be provided.” All that Adam and Eve needed was provided in the Garden. For us, we have to make a choice to trust and believe in that consequence or reward, as our trust and belief in the promise of God with our restoration. That was the story of the Promised Land. A story for another day. For now, we find ourselves at the “Eve” of God’s creation revelation which points to Adam. That will be a story for tomorrow.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.